Our Women’s Under-19s succumbed to an 8-2 defeat away at Leicester City in the opening game of the second phase of the Professional Game Academy League.
The hosts surged into a four-goal lead within half an hour to give us an uphill challenge after the first period at Belvoir Drive. Matters got worse just seven minutes after the break as they grabbed their fifth of the afternoon.
We did show fight after the hour mark and managed to pull two goals back in quick succession with Grace Bellwood and substitute Eloise Summers-Mee on target to give us a glimmer of hope. However, that quickly faded in the final stages of the contest, as the Foxes added a further three goals to condemn us to a heavy loss in the league.
On a positive note, Rania Oukriss started and completed 54 minutes in her first competitive game back from injury since late September while Under-16 full-back Aimee Bush made her second consecutive start for the Under-19s.
Leicester started on the front foot and within the opening minute of the contest, they had opened the scoring as the ball was teed up for Crista Chetcuti-Ganado just inside the box, on the left, and she picked out the bottom right corner with a composed first-time effort. Then, just three minutes later, it was 2-0 as a ball was played to Samantha Kazmar to the far left of the area and she slotted home.
On 13 minutes, the referee pointed to the spot after a Leicester City player was adjudged to have been brought down as a ball came in from a corner. Captain Jenna Whinney stepped up to take the spot-kick and sent Rose Mylam the wrong way to grab their third in the opening quarter of the game. We looked for a response to the disappointing start, Grace Breen heading over from a corner before Mia Endacott drilled low from the edge of the box, however, just after the half-hour mark, we gifted the home side their fourth as a wayward pass across our backline was stolen by Chetcuti-Ganados who then slipped Savannah Mollis through one-on-one with Mylam and she slotted low past our shot stopper.
Kazmar then saw her effort from close range deflected on to the underside of the crossbar before Breen cleared off the line, as the hosts finished the first period strongly. Leicester City picked up where they left off seven minutes after the restart as Chetcuti-Ganado, who raced down the left side of the box, squared the ball across to Beau King to convert from close range.
Blue Bartlett-Antwi’s free-kick from around 30 yards forced Phoebe Baker to tip the ball over the bar at full stretch while Mylam produced a good save to push away a curling shot from the edge of the box. Despite the scoreline, we continued to show fight and, on 76 minutes, Bellwood grabbed a consolation goal for our young side. Substitute Lucy Barraclough, who made an instant impact on her introduction, set substitute Eloise Summers-Mee down the right and she then delivered an inch-perfect low ball to Bellwood in the middle of the area who sent a first-time effort into the roof of the net.
Gaitely had an effort deflected wide after more good work from Summers-Mee and, from the resulting corner, Bartlett-Antwi was brought down as the referee pointed to the spot once again. Summers-Mee stepped up and fired low into the bottom corner, despite the goalkeeper going the right way. However, our hard work to pull two goals back were undone just a minute later as, at the other end, Leicester were awarded their second penalty and Poppy Groves converted for their sixth of the afternoon.
The hosts continued to push in the final stages and made it 7-2 with five minutes left to play in normal time when Groves headed home from close range from a corner. Then, in the first minutes of stoppage time, Freya Pearce advanced into the box and slotted home to wrap up a frustrating afternoon for our Under-19s.